6 Tips for Preventing a Gardening Injury

Do you love spring because you can get outside and garden? If you’re starting to get back into your gardening routine, there are some things you should consider implementing to prevent injury. You might be thinking, “How do you get an injury from gardening”? Well, just think of all the things that you do while you’re out there. Gardening involves a ton of motions and movements that can cause an injury, such as:

Weeding

Lifting

Digging

Kneeling

Raking

If your body isn’t used to this type of work all the time, it can be a shock to your body. Your knees, shoulders back and neck can really take a beating from the sudden burst of activity. To help you avoid pain and garden regret, here are six things you can do to prevent a gardening injury:

Do a 10-minute muscle warm-up with stretching before you begin.

Avoid staying in one position for too long. Allow yourself to move positions and stand up or stretch every so often.

Utilize helpful garden tools such as a wheelbarrow, tarp or cart to help you move anything heavy.

Always practice proper lifting form when lifting heavy objects, like those big bags of mulch! This means no twisting or hunched back while lifting.

If you’re working down on the ground, find a kneeling position that works for your knees. If you find it hard to kneel on both of your knees, you can always try it another way with one foot on the ground and kneel on one knee. It’s also a good idea to wear knee pads or use a practical gardening pad to save your knees from some delayed pain.

At the end of your time outside, spend a couple minutes on stretching and relaxing your muscles with a couple injury prevention exercises.